Has anyone used the Shaker Mad Dog Mic. It looks like it would be especially good for chromatic. Shaker says that it has more bass response than the Mad Cat mic. I've seen the Ron Sunshine video on him testing it. There is very little commentary in his video about it and I was kind of neutral about the sound through his test amps with a diatonic. The attractive thing about it is that you can hold it in one hand with your other cupping it just like the Mad Cat mic. and it won't slip out of your hand because the volume control goes through your fingers. Not that I need any more mics but I am being tempted.
I have two of your ultimate bullitized mics Greg,545 & PE54 which I love. I also am curious why I never see any one using a Mad Dog mic. The main reason I'm asking about them is the way it is designed to be held between the fingers of the left hand. This is very appealing to me and it looks very comfortable for chromatic playing. Comfort is one thing and of course sound quality is of the most importance.
Can't comment on the mad dog, but the mad cat was the first harp mic I had. To me the tone is still thin and weak, and I actually find a bullet mic much more comfortable to hold; the position of the cable feels odd, and a bullet feels a much more natural shape to cup. ---------- Lucky Lester
the position of the cable is odd. it comes out on top of the cup. however, it is very comfortable and allows you to get good hand effects.
i have seen madcat use the madcat on stage. he didnt have much trouble getting good tone out of it. but, like most great professionals, i think he could get great tone out of most any mic.
imo- unless one is a very good player with great tone, i would spend a little more money and get a better, and maybe more versatile, mic. if one of your mics just aint cutting it, or you got the "i just GOTTA spend money on some new gear blues", you should call greg, get his opinion and buy one of his mics. i doubt if you could go wrong.
perhaps you can try it at the store. take one of your amps there and give it a whirl.
Thanks for the offer eharp. It's the maddog that I would like to try. I eventually will find one locally to try out meanwhile I have a good collection of great harp mics that I am very happy with. I appreciate you offer, Thanks again.
I'm new to playing through a mic, and the bullet and other mics I tried felt awkward, especially when I found that I couldn't get the right "wah" sound using my hands (although perhaps I just didn't work on it enough). Anyway, when I saw the Mad Dog Mic it appealed to me right away, given the way it frees up one's right hand. I'm very happy with the Mad Dog, albeit that I don't have enough experience to say how the tone compares to other mics.
In the below video, I'm using the Mad Dog, a Pignose amp, the Lone Wolf Harp Attack, and an Ibanez AD9 Analog Delay:
I went to a blues jam I found out about here the other day. I got to play though an amp for the first time. Now I am researching mics and amps.
I considered the mad dog/cat, but I got the less expensive Shaker crystal and fed it into a cheap Fender amp I have. It sounds terrible. I don't know how much is the amp and how much is the mike. I thought harmonica was a cheap portable instrument. Ah well, I am having fun though.
Last Edited by on Nov 21, 2011 7:51 PM
STME58, its likely the amp but it might be the combination of the two rather than one or the other. I have a shaker dynamic, a 520d, and some other pretty good mics. I like them all with the right amp but there are some combinations that just don't sound great to me.
Thanks easyreeder. This harminica buisness is quite a trial and error thing isn't it. A lot of it has a high cost per trial too! Recomedations help but what works for someone else may not work for you. I am new to amps but by reading up and fiddleing with the knobs I was able to get my setup to go from awful to OK.
Maybe I should take my mike over to Guitat Center and try it on a few amps to see what sounds good that I can afford.
Guitar Center will definitely have a wide choice of amps, but don't rule out your local "mom & pop" music shop either. There's a shop in Terre Haute, IN that I've gone to in the past. It looks tiny from the front face of the store, but you walk inside and the place goes on for miles into the back, with the walls lined with guitars and basses, and the center aisle with shelves full of amplifiers. And pawn shops can surprise you with a good tube amp on occaision as well. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Music stores know NOTHING about amplified harp. Suggest you download and read this document before you buy anything. It will make you way more educated than any sales guy you're likely to run into. Music stores know NOTHING about amplified harp. They know about amplified guitar. Music stores know NOTHING about amplified harp.
I'll second that from Greg. The only rare exception is if there's actually a clerk who has experience playing amplified harp himself, and even then, he may try to make a bigger sale by selling you something that's really no good to you. Read Greg's document. If I'd had this a long time ago, it woulda made my search a helluva lot easier. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Going to a music shop has got to be a better way to judge whether an amp and/or mic suits your needs than listening to someone else playing one on a youtube clip where a whole load of tone is lost in the recording and another whole load in the video/audio compression.
The store guys don't need to know anything about amplified harp. They just have to have an amp and/or mic for you to try - of course that might not always be the case.
Last Edited by on Nov 22, 2011 12:19 PM
